Articles

River Sauvageau and her fellow Mandala Mavens created this sketch of the 2017 mandala.

Andra Belknap, Ojai Valley News reporter

River Sauvageau will take part in painting the Ojai Day mandala for the 25th time Oct. 20. The mandala began as a guerrilla art project, she said, but quickly gained city support.

Sauvageau remembered walking through town in the early 1990s, when former Ojai Day coordinator Jody James spotted her.

“'I heard you were involved in the mandala,'” James yelled from her passing car. “'I'm going to call you,'” Sauvageau recalled.

Thus began a partnership that has continued for two decades between the city of Ojai and the women who call themselves the Mandala Mavens.

“After 25 years, we have people who came as children now coming with their children to paint. It started as a guerrilla art project and it has become a tradition.” Sauvageau said. “This is a true Ojai tradition because it started from the ground up.”